Socio-economic conditions that influence health

Housing

It’s Time for Action in Budget 2019

Community Organizations Unite with Proposed Solutions to Ottawa’s Housing Crisis

January 28, 2019 (Ottawa) — Every person deserves a safe, stable, long-term and deeply affordable place to live. With more than 45,000 low-income Ottawa households paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent (2016 Census)​ and a pressing emergency in family homelessness, the crisis in our city has only deepened.

With a newly elected city council and a draft budget to be tabled in early February, city councillors have an opportunity to work with organizations and local residents to ensure that tenants living on low income and Ottawa’s most vulnerable residents get the support they need.

So that people can access and maintain housing that is affordable for their income, 64 organizations, networks and coalitions from across Ottawa have joined together to make four asks of Ottawa City Council to address our city’s affordable housing crisis. A petition has been signed by more than 1,600 people who also support the asks:

Invest at least $12 million, over and above federal and provincial grants, in the 2019 City Budget. This could double the number of new affordable homes supported by the City and leverage at least $12 million more from other sources.

Pass a strong citywide inclusionary zoning by-law that ensures 25% of new development is dedicated to affordable housing and places a special emphasis on deeply affordable housing within 1 km of rapid transit stations

Ensure that all available government-owned land within 1 km of current & future rapid transit stations is used for non-profit and co-op housing

Create a 2019-2022 Term of Council Priority that integrates transit and planning, with clear, affordable housing targets.

With these four asks, 64 organizations are collectively calling on the City to seriously commit to tackling our affordable housing crisis. The organizations, coalitions and networks include the Ottawa Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, City for All Women Initiative (CAWI), Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation (CCOC), Healthy Transportation Coalition, Coalition of Community Health and Resource Centres (CCHRC) and Making Voices Count (MVC) along with 57 others (See the complete list below). A petition has been signed by 1,600 people.

QUOTES Elizabeth Aguilar, an Ottawa ACORN member and recently single mother of two, describes her story trying to find housing, “After a family dynamic that was in survival mode for 3 years became toxic, I ended up in a women’s shelter. I was there for 9 months. While I was lucky they accepted my call for help, the social worker explained to me I had limited housing options and I should accept anything no matter what it was given the situation I was in. I have worked 2 jobs to sustain my children and it has been so challenging. When you understand that someone can make quick decisions to move you or kick you out you feel a knot in your throat, a pain in your chest and think, Oh my God, I'm going to be homeless with my kids. I think the City is viewing the housing problem from a business perspective when we need to think of it as a moral responsibility as well.”

“My name is Appolinaire; I have a family of 11 individuals: myself, my wife, our two daughters and seven boys aged from 18 to 1 year. In July 2014, due to lack of housing, my family lived in a shelter where physical conditions were really bad and unhealthy. After a couple of months we were moved into a motel and piled up in 3 very small rooms. Not only was the space small, but it was also full of bugs (bed bugs, cockroaches, etc.). It is unthinkable to see 11 individuals live in a 3-small-room space and in such conditions! But because of unemployment and lack of affordable housing we had to stay and endure living in an unhealthy and unsafe place with no dignity! For me, the lack of healthy and safe affordable housing is a huge issue and a concern in our communities. Many families live without dignity in shelters or motels for many, many months! I hope that our elected council will consider adding the healthy and safe affordable housing in the City budget.”

Available for an interview:

For more information and comment, please contact:

Organizations:

ACORN: To speak with a low-income ACORN board member contact Ashley Reyns, head organizer, at 613-447-4270 or ottawa@acorncanada.org (English and French)

Social Determinants of Health

The Coalition works in theory and in practice to promote good health according to the determinants of health formalized in the 1986 Ottawa Charter of the World Health Organization. This globally recognized Charter defined health promotion as ‘the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health’. Through the Coalition’s multidisciplinary teams of health care providers, community workers, health promoters, early childhood specialists, social workers and other allied service partners, we strive to build healthy communities where the prerequisite conditions for health exist- peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable environment, sustainable resources, social justice and equity.

The Coalition considers the following fourteen social determinants of health in planning, delivering and evaluating all levels of individual care, support, services and community development initiatives.

Social Determinants of Health

Aboriginal Status

Housing

Early Childhood Development

Income and Income Distribution

Disability

Social Exclusion

Food Insecurity

Unemployment and Job Security

Gender

Health Services

Education

Race

Employment and Working Conditions

Social Safety Net

Source: (Mikkonen, J., & Raphael, D., 2010). Social Determinant of Health: The Canadian Facts. Toronto: York University School of Health Policy and Management.

Here's a great video from the Wellesley Institute on the Social Determinants of Health!

Health care transformation in Canada

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) launched a National Dialogue on Health Care Transformation. A report titled "Physicians and Health Equity: Opportunities in Practice" was published by the CMA to address Health equity. Health equity is undermined when social and economic conditions, the social determinants of health, prevent or constrain people from taking actions or making decisions that would promote health.